Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana in 2009. (Disney)
“I did not realize when you walked out you were wearing your underpants.” That’s how late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel greeted a scantily clad Miley Cyrus Tuesday night when she came on his show to promote her new album. This is not, of course, the way most of us would like our daughters to be greeted.
A recent online poll asked parents to rate the celebrities whom they believed were the most negative influences on their children. Miley earned the top spot, incurring the wrath of 68% of the 2,400 moms and dads.
The former Hannah Montana star did worse than Lindsay Lohan (the drug addict and DUI convict), Amanda Bynes (recently arrested for tossing a bong out a window), Farrah Abraham (the “Teen Mom” with a sex tape) and Kim Kardashian (where to begin?).
So how did Miley, 20 — whose exploits hardly seem exceptional in this field — earn this special ire in the hearts of parents?
Because they feel duped. The cute innocent Hannah Montana star, the one they were happy to find their daughters watching, listening to, even idolizing, just a few years ago has been a real disappointment.
What began with posting mildly provocative photos of her with another girl and a Twizzler between their lips quickly jumped to an infamous photo shoot in Vanity Fair. One picture had her wearing nothing but a sheet and one had her draped seductively over her father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus.
Then there was pole dancing at the Teen Choice awards, followed by her first tattoo. More recently there was a bong vid and a reference to herself as a “stoner,” plus footage of her eating a giant cake shaped like part of the male anatomy. And now she’s given up all the pretense and just parades around in her “underwear.”
Kardashian and Abraham always were bad influences. The clean-cut careers of Lohan and Bynes didn’t last very long before they went off the rails.
But “Hannah Montana” was one of the most popular TV shows in Disney history, and it ended just two years ago. A generation of girls grew up watching it; now they watch their hero grinding on stage.
This is a danger inherent in allowing our children to get caught up in the lives of stars their age, or a little older. Watching them “grow up” gives us a false sense of familiarity with them. Oh, they like to hang out with their friends and try on clothes and act goofy. Just like our kids. Miley would never do something outrageous, we tell ourselves. As if we have any idea who this person really is.
“Familiarity usually breeds contempt,” says Christine Rosen, who writes on the intersection of culture and technology for the New Atlantis, “but not in the case of Miley Cyrus, whose alter-ego, Hannah Montana, was a regular presence in tweens’ lives through television, movies, music, video games and a baffling array of products (there was even a Hannah Montana line of shampoos and a Hannah Montana lilac-colored handheld video-game player).”
Rosen says that, “Given this multi-media juggernaut, it’s easy to understand why parents failed to distinguish between Miley and Hannah and assumed the actress would promote the same ideals as those of the well-scrubbed teen she once played on TV.”
It’s not just the parents of girls who are susceptible to this celebrity confusion. Moms and dads regularly indulge the boys who worship professional athletes. Many of them seem so clean-cut when they start out, but (with the possible exception of Tim Tebow) things can go downhill quickly.
Which leaves the question: Exactly whom should we encourage our children to emulate?
First, the dead and the fictional. I know that sounds silly, but why bet on whether A-Rod is taking performance-enhancing drugs when we can be pretty sure that Babe Ruth didn’t? A character on the page is unlikely to get a DUI, though the actor in the movie adaptation might.
Second, go for the general over the specific: Get the kids a Patriots T-shirt, not one that says Aaron Hernandez on it.
Finally, go for the art instead of the artist. Let them listen to the music and watch the movies — but skip the celebrity magazines and the glossy posters and other fan paraphernalia. We can like some of the things stars produce without wanting to be them or even wanting to know them. Because in the end, we don’t really know them at all.
Naomi Schaefer Riley is the author of
“Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is Transforming America,” out now.